expatfoodie's Profile

We just left London after living there for 3 years, you will enjoy the Ledbury. Try to get into Medlar on Kings Road, good value for London 39 pounds for 3 courses at dinner, 30 pounds for lunch, it was our favourite restaurant and food/service is just excellent! Google it for more info. You might like to try Colbert which just opened in Sloane Square, same owners as the Wolesley, make a reservation, open for breakfast, lunch and dinner and super busy, great location for walking around Knightsbridge. Cafe Fratelli in Duke of York Square was our local place for latte's, cappucinos and paninni's.

Thanks for clarification sunshine842 and hill food, I have never heard of the "leprechaun, mischief maker thing " so yes, was taken aback. Trust me the "culprit" was no leprechaun, just a thief and I have no problem telling people off when I find their behaviour inappropriate!

I'm sorry, glad you were giggling but are you implying that I am lying? Wishing the next generation in my family to be shorter and to have crooked legs, what is that all about? Call up the Art Knapp Garden Center in Richmond, BC. By the way my son is 6ft 4" and my daughter 5 ft 5" so very much taller than me. You should not wish ill on other people, what goes around comes around.

Enjoyed reading and laughing at the posts. Unbelievable how some people can behave. My daughter and I were actually at a Garden Center last year buying some bedding plants, flowers etc. to do our pots. We noticed a Chinese women rifling through the cherry tomatoe plants. We realized she was stripping the plants of the ripe tomatoes and putting them into a plastic bag. We told a member of staff who approached her to ask her what she was doing and she scampered off down an aisle and dumped the bag under a table. Sure enough when the staff member opened the bag there must have been 2 lbs of lovely red, ripe cherry tomatoes. As we were leaving the parking lot we saw her get into a Mercedes coupe, I proceeded to tell her off in cantonese that what she was doing was stealing!

Yes, there is a huge difference. No comparison, real barbecued duck from Chinese shops is far superior in flavour, authentic and of course made fresh daily. Best eaten within a few hours of purchase. You have no idea where and when the M&S one was made and by the time you reheat the thing it would be dried out. To be fair though, M&S frozen duck spring rolls that you toss in the oven to heat up are pretty flavourful but it is not the same as eating fresh bbq duck.

Chinatown is less and I would only ever buy duck from a place where I can see them hanging. I do not live near any Asian takeaways and it is always a journey to purchase one. Hope yours is well worth it.

What a heading right? Well, my mother was visiting from Vancouver back in Oct and happened to go to Chinatown and decided to buy half a barbecued duck to bring home. She said, "make sure you watch them when they cut up your take away duck because they will steal some of the meat if you don't watch them." I am sure you can tell I am Chinese with a true blue Chinese Mom! Well, I had a good laugh at the time. Having lived here for the past 2 years and never encountering this problem before I was totally shocked to say that it happened today. And of all places from Gold Mine in Bayswater which is reputed to make the best Chinese barbecued duck in London. I am just past 50 so have eaten plenty of duck over the years. I like to take the duck home on the bone as I like to use the bones to make some stock for noodles. As a nice gesture for my "Gwai Lo" husband i decided to take the meat off the bone for him. Well, that is when I realized that they had "tao jau de youk" basically, stollen some meat.I am totally disgusted. To charge 10 pounds for half a duck and then to take away some of the choicest pieces of meat (and for those of you in the know, you know there are only a few choice pieces on a duck with one being the drum). When that piece is missing you know you have been ripped off! And a duck breast cut chinese style has at least 5 pieces not 3! No I will not bother calling the restaurant, what would be the point. But be warned. A shame, their duck is good but I will never go back! Has anyone ever run into this before? If they tried this in Vancouver, they would be out of business pretty darn quick just through word of mouth.

I live just around the corner from the Jumeirah Lowndes so all rest's I recommend are within walking distance. Pantechnicon has not been good lately, been there several times, recently 2 weeks in a row, once for Sunday lunch and once for breakfast. Service indifferent, food disappointing, do try Racines on Brompton Road, very good French restaurant, go there almost twice a month, take guests from out of town and even a French friend. Excellent lamb chops, excellent steak tartare, all fish is cooked perfectly, excellent clafouti and petit pot of chocolate. Very consistent, not expensive. Brompton Brassierie next door not too bad either. You will find most places do lunch specials on Sat and Sunday and they are very, very reasonable, about 20 to 30 pounds for 3 courses. Even Petrus does a lunch special if you want to try a Gordon Ramsey rest. Have enjoyed Bar Boulud at the Mandarin hotel, fun to sit at the bar. Excellent chaucuterie though it is expensive. Carrifini on Lower Sloane St. is a well priced Italian rest. lots of locals go there, friendly service, good food. Harvey Nichols' rest. on the 5th floor is very good has lunch specials. Zafferano you need to book in advance. Just remember that like NYC Thursday is the new Friday night, much busier as lots of locals leave town for the weekend. Daphne's on Draycott Ave is Italian and also very good. If you go for dinner at 7:30pm most rest. quite empty, Londoners eat closer to 8:30pm, Weekend lunches get busier at 1pm to 2pm especially if you want to do the full English Lunch (Roast Beef, yorkshire pudding, roast potatoes etc., or Roast Lamb, Pork or Chicken). Oysters are in season and are excellent right now. Do go to Wright Brothers at the Borough Market and book ahead as it gets super busy but you can always go for a walk thru the market if you have to wait. Try to sit in front of the chefs, really friendly and great Fruit de Mer platters. Have a blast, food so much better here than when I lived her 15 years ago.